Chicago-based artist and curator Aaron Robert Baker creates beautiful emotionally resonant works inspired by everyday objects. His new solo exhibit, "Burn After Feeling," opens on Saturday, April 5 and features a beautiful collection of new works as well as a first-time peek into the artist's sketchbooks!
Works will be available to purchase first by members of our Gallery Previews email list. Sign up at previews.rotofugi.com
Join us April 5, 6-8pm, for the opening reception to meet Aaron and view the works in person while grooving to a live set by DJ Sean Doe!
Burn After Reading
New Works by Aaron Robert Baker
April 5-27, 2025
Open 10am-6pm Daily
Opening Reception
Saturday, April 5, 6-8pm
Free, All Ages
Artist Statement
My work explores the symmetry between beauty and awkwardness, nature and artifice, happiness and despair, the pleasant and the pathetic. Transformation and anthropomorphization interest me, as does our ability to turn any combination of shapes into a reflection of ourselves and our own humanity.
I enjoy whimsy and existential unease and like to depict a world where architectural forms and anthropomorphic objects express a human vulnerability. My characters lament, but also embrace, the fleeting nature of life.
In my drawings, structures liquefy, faces emerge from brick and mortar and candles take on expressions of agony, joy or contemplation. I use buildings, flames and organic forms to explore impermanence, identity and emotional expression.
"Burn After Feeling" is a celebration of the role that drawing plays in my life. It has been my life-long companion, my safe space, my antagonist and my greatest strategy for making sense of, and ultimately finding the humor in, this world.
About the Artist
Aaron Robert Baker is a Chicago-based artist and independent curator. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Art in America, Hi-Fructose and New American Painters.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Baker received his BFA from The University of North Texas and his MFA from The University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he studied under influential art critic Dave Hickey. When he was in the second grade, his teacher told his parents that he had drawn an impressive cheeseburger and that they should enroll him in art classes. Baker has been an artist ever since.
We are thrilled to welcome Chicago-based artist Laura Catherwood to our walls for our March exhibit! Join us this Saturday, March 8, 6-8pm, for the opening reception to meet Laura and groove to a new mix by DJ Sean Doe made especially for the opening!
Companions
New Works by Laura Catherwood
March 8-30, 2025
Open 10am-6pm Daily
Opening Reception
Saturday, March 8, 6-8pm
Free / All Ages
Works will be made available first to our Gallery Previews Email subscribers. Sign up at https://previews.rotofugi.com
About the Exhibit
Laura Catherwood’s ‘Companions’ celebrates and instantiates the power of togetherness.
‘Companions’ brings to life three quintessential Catherwood characters: The Guardian, a rough and ready canine protector; the Gardener, a curious and creative bird-frog explorer; and the Guide, a sleepy-eyed beetle at one with the universe. Catherwood depicts the trio’s adventures across a series of exquisitely rendered mixed-media drawings, in addition to embracing a new medium: cement statuettes, each standing four to six inches tall.
“‘Companions’ is a gesture of support and care,” Catherwood says. “These are difficult times, and when I make these little statues, I like to picture them offering comfort to people, whether it’s the bird-frog serving as a reminder of their own creativity, or the beetle as a reminder of trust and quietude. Most important of all, I want to remind people they’re not alone.”
- Show synopsis by Jason Ankeny
About the Artist
Laura Catherwood is a Chicago-based painter working primarily in graphite and oil paint. Coaxing these materials into soft textures and delicate gestures, she creates sensitive illustrations of plants, animals, and odd creatures.
Her compositions place familiar nature imagery in unexpected situations, resulting in quiet scenes that explore the inner emotional landscape while simultaneously soothing the viewer. The creatures offer the audience company in handling their ambivalent feelings, challenging experiences, unanswered questions, and grief. She works often in series, and these bodies of work evoke an intimate, mysterious narrative for the viewer to curiously enter.
For our February exhibit we've gone halfway around the world to bring you Australian painter Aaron Craig! We are certain you'll love the combination of pop culture iconography, retro flair, and extraordinarily clean brushwork featured in his new solo exhibit, "Road to Joy."
Be sure to save the date for the opening reception on February 8th as Aaron is bravely leaving Australia in the summer to travel to Chicago in the dead of winter to be there! DJ Sean Doe will be playing a live set too!
Works will be available first to members of our Gallery Previews email list. Sign up at previews.rotofugi.com
Road to Joy
New Works by Aaron Craig
February 8-March 2, 2025
Open 10am-6pm Daily
Opening Reception
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Live Set by DJ Sean Doe
Artist will be in Attendance
Free/All Ages/BYOB
About the Artist
Aaron Craig is an Australian pop art painter based on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. His paintings are recognizable by the recontextualized blend of pop culture that aim to give the viewer a strong sentiment of nostalgia. Forging together elements from cartoons, comics and product packaging until they become familiar at first glance, but at a second look are completely unique, he aims to create a rich new visual world that is seamless but ultimately shouldn’t exist. He references his art style as ‘Pop Mash’.
Aaron studied Fine Arts at Newcastle University before ultimately finishing his tertiary education with a bachelor degree in Visual Communication Design at Queensland College of Art. These two degrees helped forge his super flat painting style with a discernible colour palette and strong sense of balance.
Aaron has made artwork for clients including Disney, Mattel, Marvel, Sony BMG, Sesame Street, and Mr Men. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Taiwan, as well as shown in group shows throughout Australia, Europe and the United States.
We are excited to kick off our 2025 exhibit schedule with a fun group show guest curated by Chicago-based artist Steven Zapiain...presenting "What If?", an exploration of the idea of alternative worlds and realities through the lens of toys and pop culture!
WHAT IF?
A Group Art Show About Toys, Pop Culture, and Possibilities
Guest Curated by Steven Zapiain
January 11-February 2, 2025
Opening Reception
Saturday, January 11, 6-8pm
Live Set by DJ Sean Doe
Free, All Ages, BYOB
Exhibit pieces will first be available to our Gallery Previews email list. Sign up at http://previews.rotofugi.com.
Featured Artists
Alexis Malone
Diamond Doodle
Doodleyoodles
Hard Pass Creative
Jerome Tiunayan
Kye Smith
Laina Joy
MegmakesStainedGlass
Nambo
Rehs
Scarlett Marmalade
Steve Seeley
Steven Zapiain
Valerie von Rubio
Veronica Jurek
Victoria Park
Vivian Le
Image: Detail from "What if...Kermit was Buddha?" by Victoria Park
About the Guest Curator
Steven Zapiain is a Chicago native with a deep passion for the arts and a keen sense of humor. He works in a variety of mediums including acrylic, ink, and cut paper, oftentimes finding inspiration from pop culture/pop art as well as visual puns and wordplay. His goal is to use both vibrant colors and fun textures to create playful, accessible, and engaging pieces (not to mention occasionally funny) for all to enjoy!
Update: Now Available for Online Purchase!
Our final exhibit of the 2024 season is upon us, and we are excited to welcome back one of our longest running collaborators and an icon of the Chicago creative scene, Shawn Smith (aka Shawnimals), for an all new exhibit!
Join us this Saturday, December 14, 7-9pm for the opening reception to check out the art, meet Shawn, and groove to a live set by DJ Sean Doe!
Remnants
New Works by Shawn Smith (Shawnimals)
December 14. 2024-January 5, 2025
Opening Reception
Saturday, December 14, 7-9pm
Live Set by DJ Sean Doe
Free, All Ages, BYOB
Exhibit pieces will first be available to our Gallery Previews email list. Sign up at http://previews.rotofugi.com.
About the Artist
Chicago-based Shawn Smith is best known as the artist and designer behind Shawnimals and Ninjatown. His primary focus in recent years has been on fine art and illustration, creating a wide variety of drawings, paintings, sculptural works, live art, and public murals—particularly his "shapes" which are featured in an animated commercial for the Illinois Department of Human Services and many walls across Chicagoland.
His character-based body of work explores ideas of memory, friendship, community, diversity, and inclusivity, showing a wide range of not only sizes, shapes, and colors, but also emotions and perspectives. Smith's hope is that the work will be indicative of the support that true community can build. Simply put, he wants to delight and inspire people everywhere with his work.
